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Post by KostaAndreadis @ 02:16pm 22/02/17 | 16 Comments
Remember all those campaign promises about no rise in GST? And how as a nation we could collectively look over some light human rights violations in order to keep prices "as they is." Well, time to sharpen those pitch forks, because Valve and Steam will be implementing GST into sales starting in July. Okay, so it's not exactly the end of the world. And this is something we've been expecting for a while. But still, it's a good time as any to start complaining.

The inclusion of GST for Australian customers will arrive alongside similar measures for other countries including Japan, New Zealand, Iceland, South and Africa. And even though Steam still doesn't have local pricing for its offerings, GST will be factored into the advertised prices.




steamaustraliagsttaxpricing





Latest Comments
NiTrat3
Posted 03:50pm 22/2/17
So are they adding 10% or taking 10% of the advertised price? I haven't bought anything off steam for a while now since it's cheaper to buy the physical copy lately.
Ickus
Posted 04:30pm 22/2/17
Its not like I needed another reason to buy my keys from overseas sites but more the merrier I guess.
Twisted
Posted 04:49pm 22/2/17
Yeah, I just get my keys from overseas now, unless there is no Australia tax applied then I'm happy to pay. GST is fine as long as the developer is not f**king me over with some random local pricing BS.
FSCB
Posted 05:57pm 22/2/17
Yeah well the issue is not really the GST being added. Steam are providing something that the Govt could easily fit into any definition of "Services".
However, the issue is that Steam are still charging Australia a lot compared to what the sell the games for overseas. And on top of that, they sell to us in USD so that we get slapped with some s*** conversion as well. A real rip off deal.
Hence, I like NiTrat3, have had very few purchases in recent months. Steam is just too expensive.
In the same period of time, I have bought SWBF season pass, BF1 and then BF1 season pass off Origin...they charge in AUD so no f*****g around and when they had sales I bought everything for about 30% off.
It really depends what you play I guess, but I can't justify dropping $15+ on a random indie game.
deadlyf
Posted 05:59pm 22/2/17
Do they have prices listed in AUD or are we being charged GST on top of currency conversion which would be complete bulls***.

Steam lost it's value as an online retailer for me way back when they started charging $80 US for games because the publishers wanted to rip Aussie consumers off, primarily Activision but it triggered a price rise from most other publishers. At that point it was cheaper to get hard copies delivered from JB hifi, tax and all.

Now there are so many other online options I wonder how many people actually use the Steam store now days. I haven't bought a game off them directly for at least 5 years.
breno
Posted 06:34pm 22/2/17
Does this mean they are going to start to display prices in AUD? Eh, who cares either way, prices are cheaper on key sites even when on sale.
infi
Posted 06:47pm 22/2/17
just use dlcompare. f*** buying from steam.
BladeRunner
Posted 07:10pm 22/2/17
Either way, we are getting screwed. So unless it's cheap during a sale, it's probably not worth it.

SAD, Just Sad.
ytime
Posted 10:05pm 22/2/17
Truly a strange day when steam is bashed.

For a while it was a bastion of light for Australian PC gamers
Zenmaster
Posted 10:27pm 22/2/17
seriously?


dude - set your kid up on their own VPN and be done.


I want my children to gift me s***** Steam games on Fathers Day instead of crappy socks.


I don't want to berate them afterwards for wasting money on s***** online purchases.


CREATE the safe space you want for your people as best you can. Everything after that is up to the Govt ;)
Hogfather
Posted 10:37am 23/2/17
Steam doesn't set prices, publishers do.

You can expect the already-high official Steam prices to increase by 10%, publishers are not going to eat the margins.

You can probably also expect a crackdown on out-of-region key trading at some point.
deadlyf
Posted 11:38am 23/2/17
Funnily enough, publishers setting prices for retailers is against the law in Australia.
trog
Posted 10:27pm 23/2/17
Enforcing GST on international digital sellers seems like a totally ludicrous moneygrab to me. I know some [small] companies that have simply stopped servicing some international regions because the overhead of dealing with remote tax codes is too great. Valve obviously don't have this problem but I feel like they could just as easily give us the "sorry this game is not available in your region" treatment, block Australia, ignore GST, and just let us buy games through VPNs.

This would have the side benefit of f*****g off publishers that persist in the Australia tax. I suspect they'd probably lose more sales (they may have even done the maths on this) but gee, it'd be nice.
Hogfather
Posted 12:26am 24/2/17
Funnily enough, publishers setting prices for retailers is against the law in Australia.

Huh, the goods that Steam sell are essentially sold on consignment. Happens all the time in Australian retail, and the supplier sets the price quite legally.

The Steam relationship for buyer <-> store <-> publisher is more like eBay than EB Games.
deadlyf
Posted 04:18pm 24/2/17
yeah true, for some reason I forgot they weren't a warehouse. Still if they were like ebay then wouldn't GST be the responsibility of the publishers?
Hogfather
Posted 05:36pm 24/2/17
Nah not necessarily.

When you buy something on consignment, the contract of sale is usually between you and the person who takes your money (in this case Steam or Valve).

eBay is a flawed example (bash me its fine) because they don't take your money, they just facilitate a transaction between buyer and seller.

This is why Steam is on the hook for statutory warranty and refunds (and GST) but eBay is not.
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